Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1887-05-11

DETECTIVE AND CLERK.
How the Former Is Employed to
Watch the Latter.
Good Recommendations Not Sufficient to
Secure a Place in CITY stores AMI or
aces-Tnquiry Into the Hidden
rs Well as the Open Life.
[Brooklyn Eagle.1

n CERTAIN ncfC0dnb was mold
ing forth at his club the other evening on
the trouble he had had at one time and an
other in his career with his employees.
There is no doubt about this he said
at last, "that in spite of all the defalca-
tons aud embezzlements and running
away to Canada that we have heard so
much about lately, the general moral
character of our clerks has wonderfully
improved during the past few years.
There are fewer fast men and more re-
liable citizens among them now than at any
time for twenty years. Unfortunately,
that isn't any particular ground for think
ing the world has grown materially
better during that time. II is simply
another case where the methods of
civilization are getting ahead of mans
weakness toward vice, just as steam
ships have eradicated piracy. railroads
have done away with highway robbery,
and electricity has discouraged murder.
IN this way organized detective work has
encouraged honesty among store en-
ployes. don't mean so much in watching
them while they're in our employ as in
finding out all there is about them before
we hire them and mainta tanning strict
standard of behavior after we get them.
There are score Of the biggest houses in
Brooklyn whose managers co just as do
in this matter. We won't hire Young
man for responsible place in our store
unless we are personally and very well
acquainted with him aud his antecedents
for whom firm of private detectives
whom we employ for the purpose do not
show very clean record as the result of
| their Investigations. They are instructed
to make the strictest search into the can
didate's habits and one little flaw Will ruin
| him
~
cashier. Twas deluged with applications
but determined to lie very sure before
| made a selection. 1 was particularly
struck with the claims of one young man
who came from q respectable family. He
brought unimpeachable references from
former employers, from the pastor of the
church which he attended and from vari-
ous other sources of respectability He
was bright, cicar-hcaded, polite aud very
prepossessing. Ny partner was in favor
of hiring him on the spot. l thought II
best, however, to wait for the detectives
report, as matter OF principle. After
weeks investigation they said that the
| young man bore a very fine reputation
among those who knew him, that he was
great social favorite and engaged to be
married into family of some distinction;
but shat he occasionally drank and on the
! sly visited a certain gambling-room.
! was 10th to believe such Il report about so
! promising young man, but the detectives
put such evidence IL my hands that was
| compelled TO believe them OF course
that settled it, so far as my store was con-
! Cerned. l would not have q man in my
! employ who drank and certainly not one
| wno ganloled. 70 do these things openly
! was bad enough, but TO do them so as TO
! utterly deceive friends and family was a
clear indication of character not 10 be-
! neglected BY any one. / secured another
cashier ard dismissed the matter from my
mind. A few days afterward the last en-
| ploycr Of the young man called u pom me to
inquire why one so highly recommended
! should be rejected. / showed him the de-
| tectives' report and he was indignant at
! its charges. Something that was said,
| however, must have set him to thinking,
| for when he went away he hired an ex-
! pert To examine his books and found that
the exemplary yolng man whom he had
! recommended so highly had swindled him
| out Of twelve hundred dollars. He Would
! have made a promising kind of cashier
| wouldn't he. A young man who was able
to cover tracks as well as that.
"0f course, after we have got honest
men we can't always keep them so, be-
| cause good men win Gail from grace now
J end then, so We keep upa much closer sur
/ NAilidttNS u utfpl t-iGll biloI bESf nave any
idea Of. 1t is presty safe to say that If any
| young man employed in a res ponsble po-
sition in any of our stores is gambling or
! drinking lie is doing IL with his employers
! knowledge, although he may feel very
sure TO one outside OF his boon compan-
] ions has any idea of it. There is a sort OF
| organization among some of the houses
and if one hears that auother's employ is
going wrong it makes the fact known at
| headquarters. Merchants pay great
deaf more attention to such evidences of
their clerks characters now than they
used to-
''The discovery Of irregularities in a
\ clerks private life doesn't alwavs mean
his discharge. NY own practice always is
! 10 give him chance, if there ia any hope
in him. let him know that am aware OF
his habits, and tell him what have known
| Of young men who have gone to destruc-
ton by DONG what he has been doing.
Then 1 tell him ] will give him another
chance, and in the great majority Of cases
Ge braces IN and behaves himself.
''ln the course OF my experience / have
revealed the bad habits of sons TO fathers
who supposed their sons models OF proprie-
| ty, have broken up more than ono mar
riage match, and, believe, saved a verz
! large number of young men from rum
SIT is this sort Of business that keeps
the private detective ageacies alive,
though very few people know it. If it
were not for us they would starve to
death In some Western cities the meP-
! chants have formed q sort of co-operative
| detective agency very much like the mer-
camille agencies. They pay certain
monthly rate and get in return fuilinteli;-
gence about the habits of their employees
am ret sure but that is very good pIaa
and we may have to come TO it here.'i
There is no doubt that widespread
system Of espionage over responsible eia-
| Pieyes has grown up in the past foar
| years. said an old detective TO whom /
! reported these remarks EMPLOYERS
have come 10 the conclusion that il Is
! cheaper to know what persons in
their hire are dong now. than 70 find It
oui when, perhaps, thcy have disappeared
WITH lot Of cash II Is really not very
| ofien that any thing can be found against
young man. and when it is he is some
| times the wro3g man. Cnc OF the first
men thGt l Lad to make a COMPLAINT
| against when j was hired by q house ,lp
| the street was the son CT the proprietor
| Himself. He used 20 go TO poker room
| nearly every night. lie was supposed 70
| be ocurtiEg a g.rl somewhere and the
folks never suspected that any thing was
| wTc=g Ii nearly broke bis fathers
beart Wien ] lad the evidence before
] Lim. lie punished has wayward son in
way that. think, Taught him lesson"
''What did ne do with him, deprive hin;
Of pocket money for years''
'-oh, no; be got hin elected to tue Cisy
cculcii-n
The Early Poets Doom.